Baden v. Baden

260 So. 3d 1108
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided November 14, 2018·No. Case No. 2D18-1726·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

BADALAMENTI, Judge.

H. Ray Baden seeks a writ of prohibition to prevent the trial court from further acting without jurisdiction in a lawsuit he filed involving the Baden Irrevocable Trust-2012 (the Trust), an irrevocable trust he settled with his now deceased *1110wife. The trial court struck as a nullity his notice of voluntary dismissal filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.420(a)(1). We grant the petition and quash the trial court's order striking his notice of voluntary dismissal because Mr. Baden's filing of the notice of voluntary dismissal divested the trial court of jurisdiction to issue orders or otherwise proceed with the underlying case initiated by Mr. Baden.

Mr. Baden and his late wife were settlors of the Trust. Under the terms of the original Trust, each of their three adult children was a thirty percent beneficiary and cotrustee. Mr. Baden's grandchildren were also beneficiaries, making up the remaining ten percent. Since the establishment of the Trust, two of Mr. Baden's children ("the daughters"), respondents here, have been disputing with Mr. Baden and their brother over the handling of the Trust's assets.

Two years after settling the Trust, Mr. Baden filed a seven-count amended complaint. All counts relating to the Trust in Mr. Baden's operative complaint were resolved by the parties by a stipulated agreement reached in late 2014. The remaining three counts were unrelated to the Trust. Those remaining counts alleged that each of Mr. Baden's three children had neglected to repay him for various monies he had loaned to them.

As part of the parties' stipulated agreement to resolve Mr. Baden's Trust-related claims, Mr. Baden's three children agreed to be replaced by a successor trustee. That successor trustee has since been replaced by a second successor trustee. In all events, on December 12, 2014, the trial court accepted the parties' stipulation in its entirety and rendered an order titled "Partial Final Judgment for Judicial Modification of the Baden Irrevocable Trust-2012." The trial court concluded the partial final judgment with this statement: "The [c]ourt shall retain continuing jurisdiction to supervise the [Trust] pursuant to [section] 736.0201[, Florida Statutes, 2017 ]." The only counts remaining from Mr. Baden's operative complaint were those related to loans his three children allegedly failed to repay him.

But this stipulation disposing of all Trust-related counts in Mr. Baden's operative complaint did not put a stop to the Trust-related litigation. Rather than initiating a new case in the trial court, the successor trustee filed several motions in the underlying case initiated by Mr. Baden. Since the establishment of the 2012 Trust, the assets have steadily depleted. Based on the limited record before us, the Trust has cash assets of somewhere between $269,000 and $400,000, all of which were deposited into a bank account by the second successor trustee. Most recently, the daughters have urged the second successor trustee to bring an action against Mr. Baden-again, within the still-open case he initiated-concerning certain intellectual property of which the status as a trust asset is disputed by the parties. But the second successor trustee has been reluctant to do so. Consequently, the daughters instead asked the trial court to order the second successor trustee to do something the second successor trustee already advised them he would not do.

In what seems to have been an attempt to extricate himself from further litigation in the case he initiated and is currently before us, Mr. Baden filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of the operative complaint's remaining three counts (for the debts his three children had not yet repaid him) pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.420(a)(1). But his attempt to voluntarily dismiss what was left in the case he initiated was to no avail. Specifically, the trial court entered a sua sponte order rejecting Mr. Baden's notice of voluntary *1111dismissal, ruling that it was a "legal nullity." In rejecting Mr. Baden's notice of voluntarily dismissal, the trial court first noted that it had retained jurisdiction pursuant to section 736.0201 to supervise the Trust in the partial final judgment it entered on December 12, 2014, where the parties agreed to dismiss all of the Trust-related counts set forth in Mr. Baden's operative complaint. The trial court further ruled that it maintained jurisdiction over the Trust pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.420(a)(1) because the second successor trustee of the Trust is "under [its] direction, supervision and control," and the funds deposited by the second successor trustee in a bank account are therefore "in the custody of the Court." Mr. Baden's petition for writ of prohibition followed.

We start with a determination of our jurisdiction in this original proceeding. "Prohibition is an extraordinary writ by which a superior court may prevent an inferior court or tribunal, over which it has appellate and supervisory jurisdiction, from acting outside its jurisdiction." Mandico v. Taos Constr., Inc., 605 So.2d 850, 853 (Fla. 1992). As explained by the Fourth District, prohibition is the appropriate vehicle for challenging, as was done here, the trial court's jurisdiction to continue to exercise jurisdiction over a case after the plaintiff has filed a notice of voluntary dismissal pursuant to rule 1.420(a)(1) :

[T]he issue is whether the trial judge, after the voluntary dismissal in this case, still has the power to preside over this particular dispute between the parties.... [T]he word "jurisdiction" ordinarily refers to "subject matter" or "personal" jurisdiction, but there is a third meaning ("case" jurisdiction) which involves the power of the court over a particular case that is within its subject matter jurisdiction. "Case" jurisdiction is involved here because the trial court clearly has jurisdiction over the subject matter. A writ of prohibition is the proper claim for relief in this case.

Tobkin v. State, 777 So.2d 1160, 1163 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (citation omitted).1

Having established our prohibition jurisdiction, we now turn to the applicability of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure in judicial proceedings concerning trusts. Subject to exceptions not relevant here, "judicial proceedings concerning trusts" are governed by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. § 736.0201(1).2 Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.420(a)(1) authorizes a plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss his action or claim without order of the court at any time before a hearing on motion for summary judgment "[e]xcept in actions in which property has been seized or is in the custody of the court" as follows:

Except in actions in which property has been seized or is in the custody of the court, an action, a claim, or any part of an action or claim may be dismissed by plaintiff without order of court (A) before trial by serving, or during trial by stating on the record, a notice of dismissal at any time before a hearing on motion for summary judgment, or if none is served or if the motion is denied, *1112

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Baden v. Baden, 260 So. 3d 1108 (Fla. Ct. App. 2018).

260 So. 3d 1108 (Baden v. Baden) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

ILLINOIS UNION INSURANCE CO. v. MCGINLEY, THE VUE PASCO, LLC
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2025
LUIS A. PADRON v. ALYSENDRINA PADRON
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2023
STATE OF FLORIDA v. SHANE MANCUSO
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2023